Tradition is nice, but it can be a burden. The weight of history can leave you less nimble.

That occasionally has been the case in England, soccer’s birthplace. It didn’t enter the World Cup until 1950. No English club played in the first European Cup. Older habits and perspectives die hard.

This week, millions watched Manchester City l'enfant terrible Mario Balotelli nearly separate Alex Song’s lower leg from the rest of his body with a high tackle to the knee. Referee Martin Atkinson saw it, sort of, and let Balotelli escape unpunished for a play that could have ended the Arsenal midfielder’s season. The ensuing outcry over Balotelli’s recklessness prompted this response from England’s Football Association:

“Retrospective action can only be taken in scenarios where none of the match officials saw the players coming together,” the sport’s steward said, adding that there would be no “re-refereeing” of an incident.

Traditionally, the referee is the highest authority in soccer. That position is unassailable — whether he’s right or wrong and regardless of how many people saw the slow-motion truth. Balotelli was off the hook, at least for that particular assault.

In MLS, he’d have been sent on vacation.

It should come as no surprise that the American league has a different take on soccer’s old world orthodoxy.

Unfettered by the “way it’s always been done” and faced with marketing the sport to a fan base with different sensibilities, MLS has taken a few liberties. Some, like the single-entity structure that promotes parity and mutual responsibility — and which is envied by a host of debt-ridden clubs in Europe — have worked. Others, like the shootout, have fallen flat.

But the urge to innovate remains, and this season MLS has re-invented the way the world’s game is policed. The league’s owners and executives want to re-cast the sport for the modern American audience, and they’re not going to wait for the traditionalists to make the first move.

“It’s really about trying to get everyone to understand what we want our league and the play on our fields to look like,” MLS executive vice president Nelson Rodriguez told Sporting News. "It’s what we believe our fans want but equally important what we believe to be in the best interests of player safety."

Rodriguez, a former college soccer coach who has been a league executive for more than a decade, is the public face of the five-man Disciplinary Committee, the anonymous body that metes out fines and suspensions for the sort of soccer it thinks MLS can do without. The committee — comprised of a former referee, a former coach and three retired players — has been especially busy the past month.

It has fined and suspended five players for a “reckless challenge” or “violent conduct” that “endanger(ed) the safety of an opponent” and fined two more for embellishing contact (diving) in an attempt to snooker the referee. Each incident was seen by match officials, and several of those players involved were punished with yellow cards.

But MLS’ iconoclasts are just fine with “re-refereeing” games. The message is clear: Motivated by the same instinct that led the NFL to increase protection of quarterbacks, MLS is going above and beyond to shield its most talented and marketable players from harm.

In addition, MLS has given up on relying on the better angels of players’ nature to stop the diving and simulation American audiences so abhor. If a player tumbles to the ground without contact or feigns injury without being touched, he’ll be forced to write a check. If that action results in a goal or card that shows up in the box score, a suspension is likely as well.

A series of interviews conducted by Sporting News revealed general agreement that diving is a cancer in the game and must be eradicated. Even U.S. national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann called it “the right thing to do.”

Such evolution in attitude is especially evident in the nation’s capital. Last year, the committee fined former D.C. United forward Charlie Davies for diving during a game vs. Real Salt Lake. It was the first sanction of its kind. D.C. team officials and players closed ranks and refused to address or even acknowledge the issue.

Last week, after midfielder Danny Cruz was sent a bill for pretending to be hit in the face during a confrontation with Dallas' Jair Benitez, D.C. coach Ben Olsen took a different tack.

“Ultimately, if it results in less broken ankles and less simulation, I suppose I’m for it,” he told Sporting News regarding the ramped up sanctions.

Olsen just wants consistency. They all do.

And while diving and simulation is easier to define—either the player was touched or he wasn’t—“reckless” and “violent” are in the eye of the beholder. A slow-motion replay can make a tackle look far more frightening. Intent is almost impossible to divine. Context matters.

“When you’re looking at those kinds of tackles and fouls, there are a lot of things that go into it,” Seattle coach Sigi Schmid said. “Was there a history between the players? Did this guy just school me twice, so now I can send a message? If player ‘X’ fouls player ‘Y,’ that might just be a case where he was late on the ball. But if you’ve been watching the game and that player ‘Y’ had been a pain in the (butt), maybe it wasn’t so accidental.”

With so much to consider and such a vast gray area to navigate, the committee requires the high threshold of unanimity to sanction a player above and beyond what the referee thought was appropriate in the moment.

“Every play is different, and context matters,” Rodriguez said. "Speed, force, if the tackle is high, late, if it’s it on the trailing leg, if studs are exposed, if the victim is in a particularly vulnerable position, these are all elements that get discussed by the committee.

“There is and there must be some credence to the (referee), who’s closest to the play at the time and has a better feeling of the moment. Sometimes video can be helpful, and sometimes it can be deceptive.”

But MLS is a modern league, and ultimately technology offers “the benefit of timing and angles that the referees don’t have,” Rodriguez said. “We don’t feel it undermines the official. We feel that done in concert and in a constructive way it helps the officials understand what the league wishes to articulate regarding acceptable boundaries.”

Rodriguez is sympathetic to the demands for consistency and more transparency. He said MLS is considering implementing something similar to the detailed video explanations the NHL produces on player safety and penalties. But he’s a realist.

Rodriguez acknowledged that “it’s both a blessing and a curse of our sport that two people can look at a play and one can see the beauty and one can see the cynicism.”

Some decisions might be unfair. Some bad tackles will slip through the cracks. But the goal is that the committee will be consistent enough to teach the appropriate lessons and begin, over time, to modify behavior. After all, no automobile driver is caught every time he or she speeds. But the threat of that speeding ticket is sufficient to force many to slow down.

There are dissenters. Among the most vocal is Hall of Fame defender and current ESPN analyst Alexi Lalas, for whom the blessing and curse Rodriguez described is one of soccer’s greatest appeals.

“One of the things I love about our game is that it’s not black and white," Lalas told Sporting News on Thursday. "There are gray areas and subjective moments that aren’t easily tied up in a bow. There are certain things we can do to help clear things up, but I also enjoy the fact that things aren’t always cut and dry; that’s part of the beauty of the sport and its reflection of life.

“If you want this behavior to stop, if you want to basically change the way the game is played, you can do that on the field. That’s what the referees are there for. ... You can change attitudes, styles and culture, but you can do it within the game. I don’t agree that you need to do it after the fact.”

If Lalas and those fearful of the slippery slope created by the disciplinary committee’s intrusions seek to defend the sanctity of the game, then Rodriguez and the MLS Board of the Governors would claim the same.

Already, Seattle midfielder Álvaro Fernández, one of the two players sanctioned for embellishment this season, has acknowledged that he must adjust to an American culture that frowns on such gamesmanship. In Latin America, fooling the referee and sticking it to the powers that be is tolerated, if not celebrated, as an intelligent way to gain an advantage for your team.

“There are different perspectives on soccer in the world,” he told The Seattle Times. “It's not a bad thing. It is what it is, and I just have to adapt to the league."

For Rodriguez, that’s a victory. It’s a triumph for honesty and sportsmanship.

Perspectives might be different, but MLS has drawn its line on the pitch. And it’s committed to the cause.

“Any newer message takes time," Rodriguez said. "To modify player behavior takes time. Part of what can help is consistency, but it’s not a light switch. You can’t make one or two decisions, not follow up and still expect players, coaches and referees to modify their behavior and actions.

"All of these things take time. We remain convinced we’re on a good path toward it.”